Saturday, September 29, 2007

Ok, so the spring season series are finishing up - and i gotta say there were some shows i was a lot more impressed with than i expected. I loved LuckyStar - but because it's slow and subtle. I didnt see Denou Coil coming at all - and it's way into my top 10 list all time... Kaze no Stigma finished strong - i wish it had done without the boring filler in the middle but oh well.

But the story of the season seems to be School Days. It was a slice of life story that took the concept to a whole new level. Very much not my sort of story - but pre-empting the last episode with 30 minutes of travel pictures out of concern for the subject matter is a bit over the top. The japanese are pushing the envelope in a LOT of media - whether we're talking books like Battle Royale, weird assed cartoons like Kodomo no Jikan, or the musical stylings of Dir en Gray or Melt Banana.

A couple I'm really looking forward too... but Clannad is the only tv show of the fall i know i'll set aside time for. Not that i have anything really to do with my time right now...

Thursday, September 27, 2007

I love this. Before the war started, there were those of us who opposed it... said it wouldnt end well... were looking for alternative solutions. The UN weapons inspectors were being allowed access - and guys like Blix were coming back saying 'i got nuthin'... Pressure was mounting to shut it down.

People act like going to war in march was this 'sudden and last minute decision' - when dutch shipping had been engaged for 9 months to transport american armor, when Uzbek airfields had been under construction for 6 months, and when i've heard spec ops forces tell me directly that they themselves were IN iraq in January - 3 months before the war started.

So yes, there was an inevitability to it... so of COURSE Saddam was playing the 'how do i get out of this alive' card. And now, we're seeing the mainstream press cover something that some of us saw in foreign press at the time... stuff that Al Jazeera was covering as loudly as they could... that Saddam had offered to go into exile and take a fraction of his wealth with him.

'The Egyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he's indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1 billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction," Bush was quoted as saying at the meeting one month before the U.S.-led invasion.'

The president is a thug, an asshole, and should spend an eternity in hell being buggered by goats with giant dicks wrapped in sandpaper condoms... but it doesn't excuse the american people or their past-rationalizing senators from their responsibility for events...

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Ok. So.I can remember being a kid... hanging out on housing construction sites late at night... or going off to 'camp wade' when parents were out of town. Of course, the drinking age was 18 - so it was all a bit easier... no one really needed a McLuvin ID. Anyway - I live on a street with no other houses - at the top of a hill - surrounded by tall trees... and there's a big-assed abandoned slab next to my house.

Now from time to time kids have found the slab... usually skateboarding kids who get run off the LDS church parkinglot a couple blocks away... and i dont give them any trouble. The remnants of old ramps litter the area - but since it's an abandoned construction site, there are other larger rustier markers of disuse and faded dreams.

Well... some kids have found the place. Big white pickup... LOTTA beer... they're careful, pulled up all the plants and cleaned out a little area for them to park their truck so its not visible from the road

they're quiet... they're not bothering anyone... and though i suddenly have neighbors who are most likely breaking several laws and i dont really want new neighbors i cant say they affect me...

except... they are making a fucking mess.

So. How to solve this....

I could assume they'll fucking clean up after themselves and ignore itI could go ask them to clean up their messI could go over there and clean it up myself, and leave the trashbag for them to use...I threaten to call the cops...I could just call the cops...I could take a shit in the middle of the slab...I could buy and liberally apply skunk scent (and give them a funny testimonial)or I could install an infrared webcam with audio and post their antics on the web (though this might well get me in trouble in certain non-amsterdam jurisdictions)

The pond and all of it's frogs and skeeterhawks have taken care of the mosquito problem - and it's actually getting to the extremely pleasant outdoor weather part of the year.

Honestly - all I want is for them NOT TO turn the area around my house into a dump, and not light the forest on fire... i dont give a shit about 5 or 6 semi-adults trying to enjoy themselves away from bothersome supervisors who dont like their attitude. oh, and it would be nice if no one breaks into my fucking house when i'm not home. I liked having a house where no one knew I was up here. So far, the ONLY thing that strikes me as problematic in this situation is the fact they're slobs.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Is the world flat?SHERRI SHEPHERD: Is the world flat? (laughter)GOLDBERG: Yes.SHEPHERD: …I Don’t know.GOLDBERG: What do you think?SHEPHERD: I… I never thought about it, Whoopi. Is the world flat? I never thought about it.BARBARA WALTERS: You’ve never thought about whether the world was round or flat?SHEPHERD: I tell you what I’ve thought about. How I’m going to feed my child–WALTERS: Well you can do both.SHEPERD: …how I’m going to take care of my family. The world, is the world flat has never entered into, like that has not been an important thing to me.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Monday, September 17, 2007

A lesson in distraction

So the last 3 months have found me busy toying with various distractions trying to wait for work stuff to sort itself out... so there's work on the house, work on the yard, watch a lot of film/tv, read all those books on my shelf that were waiting for me... but there's a limit. I could never take my obsessions seriously. So when faced with the choice of playing some idiot game hours on end or sleeping, i slept. Books still lie half finished strewn across the landscape of my office. And the backyard is, well, let's call it 'feral'. I hope things move forward soon... these pauses are a pain in the ass.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Chafee quits the party with some nasty commentary...then Hagel spears the party on HBO...makes you wonder what some of the other pubs would say given the opportunity - it's pretty obvious they're 'thinking' bad thoughts

Hindu devotees believe the area between India and Sri Lanka - now known as Adam's Bridge - was built millions of years ago by Lord Ram, supported by an army of monkeys. But scientists and archaeologists say Adam's Bridge, or Ram Setu, is a natural formation of sand and stones. On Wednesday the Archaeological Survey of India told the Supreme Court that the religious texts were not evidence that Lord Ram ever existed.

Posit, for a moment, that Ram did exist... as did his army of monkeys... and the tales of the Ramayana are not intended as metaphor and morality play.

It all makes me glad there aren't any 'god made x' objects in christianity - oh - except the heavens and the earth... and man... and lilith (who wasnt a mistake cause, you know, God doesn't roll wif dat - but he took care of that anyway)

Seriously - can you imagine what would happen in this country if, oh, Jesus and an army of monkeys were responsible for building the twin towers? I'll tell you one thing for sure - there'd be an oversupply of radioactive glass. If people cant put religion away when it comes to thinking - then we have a problem.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

File this one under 'put them in a room with Vick when you unleash the hounds'

Delfino says he asked one of the SWAT officers what happened to Dre and was told that the dog had been "neutralized" with the fire extinguisher. He asked the officer if the dog had attacked anybody, and the cop said no.

As smoke filled the house and Kush's efforts to save the dog failed, he finally fled from the burning home and was immediately thrown to the ground and his hands and feet were cuffed by four SWAT officers.

Meanwhile, Trisha Golden continued frantically to call for Dre to flee the house.

"We were like screaming for Dre, and [a deputy] turned around and said, `Why don't you shut the fuck up?!'" Trisha Golden says.

to quote Morgan from the new book "The way I see it, anyone who's proud of their country is either a thug or just hasn't read enough history yet"

Friday, September 07, 2007

See... I gotta tell you - once upon a time, we could pull stuff like this in our country. But now? not so much...I miss that... our ability to laugh at ourselves.I just cant help but feel the terrorists are the only ones laughing now...

What these guys did with their fake Canadian motorcade was genius - insane - but genius. The resulting news coverage? Priceless... lol. What were they thinking... dont they understand that the US has gone INSANE?!?!

Sunday, September 02, 2007

So it was just another Saturday night… and I had watched a good bit of the Cal/Tenn game because, hell lets be honest, it was pretty entertaining. It ends late – and I find myself flipping channels thinking about going to bed when I stumble across "it"... again...

And much like a def leppard blood pact - I watched. Now normally – the rule is that I’ll sit there, agape, waiting until I simply cant take it anymore (far more generous than the aforementioned). Honestly - I’ll generally make it 30 seconds before I find myself so dumbfounded that anyone finds it funny that I'll simply change the channel. But for some reason I decided to wait it out... to sit and watch... a sort of staring contest – daring them to say something almost funny - something that might make me grin in even the slightest way. It was like stumbling into a KLBJ rock block of High n Dry - I was trapped... trapped by an insistence that reality WILL BEND TO MY WILL... a lot like W and Iraq in a lot of ways, but let's not go there.

Looking back - I blame the Washington Post. Last week, there was a caption contest of a horribly unfunny photo of Chris Kattan where they referred to him as ‘former SNL funnyman’. When was he funny? Wouldn't it be better to refer to him as SNL Carnifex? He was more of a fingernails on a chalkboard man than funny man.

So anyway - there I was - maybe 2 minutes in - a cold sweat breaking out - watching a skit where a person has a miniature head-creature sticking out of its stomach ala total recall who’s saying things that are, in theory, funny... and suddenly I had an epiphany.

I think it’s like Jackson Pollack. People go to a modern art museum – and they see a white canvas on a wall with some ‘meaningful’ title... or a sea of pennies and cattle bones... or a glue gun stapled to a stapler... and I guess a lot of people find it all terribly meaningful. Others go and are confused – and never go back - because it doesn’t touch them; they wander off confused with a 'that was a waste of time' look on their faces. But splattered paint… or big red squares (or yellow ovals)… those create a harmonic in me – not in and of themselves, but through the very reactions of others. They touch the Dadaist / post-modern absurdist in me – in that those sorts of things tend to, in a small minority of visitors, create a strong emotional reaction of any sort. There are some people who will be ANGRY when they see ‘big red square’… others who will find it ‘deep and moving’…. and oh dear are those people and their reactions not some of the most entertaining things about going to a modern art museum (well, unless someone is doing Lyndie England poses with the nekkid statuary). I love the people who can take a blank canvas and understand the powerful message of the artist – and be serious about it. That they tend to run museums makes it all the more amusing – it’s like authors insisting on being the only arbiters of literature - so just going to the museum is like walking right into a real life 3 panel Mutt and Jeff strip. The circle-jerk crowd of intellectual snobbery is absofuckinglutely priceless (that being the single best reason to live in manhattan imo). On the flip side - the people who recognize it - and get upset. Oh god - they're even funnier. It's best if they're on dates - the boy stewing and angry staring at the 'giant lemon' - the girl wondering what the hell was she thinking suggesting the museum... If you're lucky you'll get an outburst.

So there I was – watching this show – and suddenly I flat out wanted to PUNCH this comedian in the face. See – I’m more Buddhist than most other things at the end of the day – the whole non-violence because violence doesn’t solve problems thing is one of those lessons you get from enough time spent analyzing historical human behavior (not to mention game theory, right WOPR?). Ok - sure - i've played the 'intimidate the violent homeless guy into leaving the girls alone' or threaten the drunk frat guy because he's being an ass... but I mean I’m not a person who’d visit violence upon anyone – not even Scalia (well, I might enjoy kicking Santorum in the nuts, but who wouldn’t)... and I swear I just wanted to rear back and really throw my weight into a solid closed fist break-my-knuckles-smashing-his-nose punch.

Which begs the question… is this the funny? Funny like laughing at the genius behind Bazooka Joe? Is SNL deconstructing comedy in a way that’s so subtle it puts the likes of Brother Theodore and Larry Bud Melman to shame? Is their humor simply that much more sophisticated than I was giving it credit - and in failing to appreciate it, isnt my reaction exactly the sort of pleasure-inducing reaction I derive from modern art? I’ll ask Miss Teen South Carolina when I see her next – I’m sure she’ll be able to give me guidance.

Well - with the GAO pissing on the status of the 'surge' - the WH is busy worrying about the propaganda game rather than the reality on the ground. Makes me wonder how they'll spin this article... "At one point, the three were trying to discuss the state of Iraqi security forces with Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, but the large, flat-panel television set facing the official proved to be a distraction. Rubaie was watching children's cartoons. When Rep. Moran (D-VA) asked him to turn it off, Rubaie protested with a laugh and said, "But this is my favorite television show," Moran recalled." The initial spin? That this is the only place with electricity for this jackass to watch them. Great. That makes it all better.

The fact is that these assclowns may spin the surge as 'working' - because the idiotic american public may buy it - but that wont change reality... and the reality is grim and getting moreso by the day.